Anyone Have a Speech Pathologist in their Int. School?

hydrogonian · Post by **hydrogonian** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:52 am

I was just curious if anyone ever had a Speech and Language Pathologist on Staff at their International School?

I was entertaining the idea of going back to school for a Masters Degree in SLP, and I was curious as to whether any International Schools either contract with or employ SLPs on a consistent basis.

I imagine that I could be a better applicant for any position, especially elementary ed, with a SLP license in addition to a teaching license. However, I was also curious as to whether, perhaps, the better funded schools might allocate cash for a full time SLP.

specialed · Post by **specialed** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 3:51 pm

I have yet to hear of any school that is so progressive, and I very highly doubt they would pay extra for it. Having said that, it might be a very welcome add-on to a Resource Room/Special Needs position. I dream of the day that we would have easy access to a Speech Specialist. At our school, I'm not even sure you would get the parents to approve of speech therapy or tutoring - they barely approve of having their sons/daughters receive "extra help" now.

As much as I love teaching overseas, the one area that disappoints me is the attitude of other countries towards the special needs populations - even for the very moderate needs of some.

guest5 · Post by **guest5** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:04 am

Several international schools have speech/language pathologists. Some are employed by the school, in other schools, they are independent contractors but who work with students within the school day on campus.

lholz · Post by **lholz** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:14 am

Hi - the Western Academy of Beijing has a full time speech pathologist on staff as part of the learning support department. However, I am not sure that many international schools offer this.

hydrogonian · Post by **hydrogonian** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:47 pm

Thanks. Yeah, I guess thats true about how many other cultures, particularly in Asia in my experience, don't want to acknowledge special needs of kids. I guess it implies weakness. Of course, I'm speaking in general.

I wonder what prompted the school in Beijing to go so far as to pay for a staff SLP?

I wonder where else there would be enough of a market to support myself full time as a contractor/ independent business?

I would guess it might be possible in Western Europe and Tokyo, with the sizable native English speaking populations there. But I would also guess that being bilingual might also be a necessity, especially in Europe.

I would love to find a market in South America to be able to set up as a contractor, or a SA IS school that would hire me.

Anyway, being that there is no certain job market for this in non native english speaking countries, than I'd have to be lucky to land a spot with an IS. Also, I have no desire to live in Beijing.